Getting ready to go back to China with M for several months, saying bye to friends and family. While talking to grandpa this evening, the little chanting voice whispering in my mind again, “on and on, going on and on, xíng xíng fù xíng xíng, 行行复行行”…

Selection of Nineteen Ancient Poems from Han Dynasty

Author: Anonymous

Translation: Burton Watson

No. 1

On and On, Going On and On

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Gu Cheng (顾城，1956-1993) was a famous Chinese modern poet, essayist, and novelist. He was a prominent member of the “Misty Poets”, a group of Chinese modernist poets.

Gu Cheng began life in privilege as the son of a prominent party member. His father was the army poet Gu Gong. At the age of twelve, his family was sent down to rural Shandong because of the Cultural Revolution(as means of re-education) where they bred pigs. There, he claimed to have learned poetry directly from nature.

In the late 1970s, Cheng became associated with the journal “Today” (今天) which began a movement in poetry known as “menglong”(朦胧) meaning “hazy, “obscure”. He became an international celebrity and travelled around the world accompanied by his wife, Xie Ye(谢烨). The two settled in Auckland, New Zealand in 1987 where Cheng taught Chinese at the University of Auckland.

In October 1993, Gu Cheng attacked his wife before hanging himself. She died later in a hospital.

– Wikipedia

Sometimes I guess I am expecting too much from Wikipedia since there should be so much ‘humanity’ behind each entry, when I read a topic been cut and dried so much that it’s reminds me a impersonal, academic study. This is the case of Gu Cheng.

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The Poets light but Lamps

Emily Dickinson

The Poets light but Lamps—

Themselves—go out—

The Wicks they stimulate—

If vital Light

Inhere as do the Suns—

Each Age a Lens

Disseminating their

Circumference—

The poets light but lamps themselves go out. The first line of Dickinson is modest, yet at such a modern time it seems to be so untimely. Read the rest of this entry »

面朝大海，春暖花开

作者：海子

从明天起, 做一个幸福的人

喂马, 劈柴, 周游世界

从明天起, 关心粮食和蔬菜

我有一所房子, 面朝大海, 春暖花开

从明天起, 和每一个亲人通信

告诉他们我的幸福 Read the rest of this entry »

I forgot to die, he said. How deep it is. Reminded me A Musical Instrument by Elizabeth Barrett Browning:

The sun on the hill forgot to die,

And the lilies revived,

and the dragon-fly Came back to dream on the river.

And the Farewell By Master Hong Yi:

长亭外，古道边，芳草碧连天，

晚风拂柳笛声残，夕阳山外山。

天之涯，海之角，知交半零落，

一瓢浊酒尽余欢，今宵别梦寒。 Read the rest of this entry »